Concerning this thing
I pleaded with the Lord
three times that it
might depart from me.
And He said to me,
"My grace is
sufficient for you,
for My strength is
made perfect
in weakness."
Therefore most gladly
I will rather boast
in my infirmities,
that the power of Christ
May he rest upon me.
2 Corinthians 12: 8
-- 9
When we
study scripture often we come across portions that are obscure and hard to
understand and often have several interpretations. This adds to our confusion.
To eliminate the confusion we must trust that God has given by the Holy
Spirit inspired words first to those to whom the writer is writing and secondly
that which we are to draw out from what was written to them so that we have an
increase in our faith and life. What we
have learned so far is that Paul spoke of a person who apparently went into the
third heaven or paradise and we find that this is actually speaking about the
presence of God. This person went to be
in the presence of God. And while there
saw and heard things that he was not to utter.
Why? Let us look at the account
in Matthew of the Transfiguration of Jesus upon the mountain whereby Moses and
Elijah appeared to him, Peter, James, and John. Here well transfigured before them the face of Jesus don't like
the sun come as close became as white as the light and a bright cloud
overshadowed them, and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud saying "this
is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Hear Him! And then Jesus
instructed James, Peter, and John: "Now
as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, ‘Tell the
vision to know one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead" (Matthew:
1 -- 9). There is a time when what
one has revealed to him is not to be spoken of until a particular time. Paul was instructed that which was seen,
that was inexpressible, was not to be spoken of to anyone. Paul only outlines that this was done and
this being outlined for the Corinthians instructs the fan and I that we are not
to be caught up in exhilaration, rather we must refrain from this and simply to
be humble before our Lord and Savior and before our fellow Christians. Paul has had to address the Corinthian
Christians at times in a harsh manner to remind them of what they had been
taught for the culture of the day he was disrupting the Christians there and
bringing upon them false teaching. Like
the Corinthian Christians we live in days where there is a religion that even
ancient Lot found himself, one that abounds whereby there is streamed the
profession but this profession is shallow in many places and within many
people. Lot found, Paul found, and we
too can find there is a certain kind of Christianity that has become
fashionable. Fashionable because a
person belongs to some denomination or as a showing of a zeal for the interest
of their denomination; even to talk about the leading controversies of the day;
and by popular religious books as fast as they come out, delay them upon your
table; to attend meetings; to subscribe to societies; to discuss the merits of
preachers; to be enthusiastic and excited about every new form of sensational
religion which crops up -- all these are comparatively easy and common
attainments. Unfortunately, they do not
make a person singular as they become like sheep following after the goat that
is leading them wherever. There is no requirement for sacrifice and the cross
becomes only words and is a picture but not the reality of faith. One likes to be exalted, and you have a form
that seemed to be spiritually minded when in fact it is far from that
truth. To walk closely with God is to
be really spiritually minded. If one is
spiritually minded than one must remember that we are strangers and pilgrims,
furthermore, we are the ambassadors for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are His witnesses and we are to be
distinct from the world in our employment of our time, in our conversation, in
our amusements, in our grass. We are to
be a faithful witness for Christ in all places. This requires if we are to be one who is a true witness for Jesus
Christ to be prayerful, humble, unselfish, good tempered, quiet, easily
pleased, charitable, agent, meek. This
requires of us can be so jealously afraid of all manner of sin so that we
crumble a lie to those dangers from the world.
This is not common among many who call themselves true Christian but
worse than this is an absence of those things because they're not felt nor are
they bewailed as they should be. Paul
spoke: "Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for
Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then
I am strong. I have become a fool in
boasting, you have compelled me. For I
ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing was I behind the most
eminent apostles, though I am nothing" (2 Corinthians 12: 10 -- 11). Paul gives us a picture not just of himself,
but a picture so that we can see what is required of a true Christian, and
Authentic Christian. Our trust is in
the Lord Jesus Christ and His promises.
We do not boast that we are Christians and even if all those things
which are reproaches upon us we stand firm for Jesus Christ knowing that we are
aliens in this world and that we have already been legally assigned to happen,
that is to be in the presence of God for eternity. As the old song goes: "This world is not my home I'm just a
passing through, my treasures are laid up somewhere in the blue."
I will set nothing wicked before my eyes;
I hate the
work of those who fall away;
it shall not cling to me.
A perverse
heart shall depart from me;
I will not know wickedness.
Psalm 101: 3 -- 4
Place your focus upon Jesus Christ
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